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Here’s a recap from North Lake College professor Gabriel Bach of a visit by Irving City Council members Dennis Webb and Thomas Spink to his government class.

On being a native Irvingite:
Both have been long time residents of Irving, though Tom grew up in Chicago and attended universities in different states. As for Dennis, he lived in the same house in District 3 for the last 28 years.

On the speakers’ education:
Dennis graduated from Nimitz, then attended Southern Bible Institute, Criswell Bible College, and North Lake College before starting a career as a firefighter and becoming the Senior Pastor of the Bear Creek Community Church. Tom graduated in engineering from the University of Arkansas, in business from Kansas University and earned a law degree.

Any past business experience?
To thrive in the business world, Tom decided to be licensed in a few financial specialized fields. He is a CEO of a few consulting companies in Irving. Dennis was employed by companies like US Gypsum and NCH, before deciding to be a firefighter and making it a life career. He said, “In those days, one could have different jobs without a formal education. Today, the kind of jobs I had then are all mechanized or computerized. Today a college degree is a necessity.”

Any Community Experience?
Community experience for Dennis includes volunteering at a local school, implementing the Bear Creek Community Church Summer learning enhancement program for Irving youth, serving on the Ttustee board of a charter school, and president of the Bear Creek Development Corporation’s Board of Directors, a non-profit community housing development corporation.
Tom said, “What can I do to help you? Need any help? Come and see me. Shame on you if you don’t call me when you need help.” According to him, “Life is worthless if one does not help others.” Students learned too that Tom volunteers with critically burned children and supports an animal volunteer group at Baylor.

And council experience:
Dennis served on the Planning and Zoning commission and the Human Relations Advisory Committee whereas Tom was liaison to the Irving Youth Council, Housing and Human Services Board, and the Irving Arts Board. Currently, Tom’s responsibilities include the chairmanship to the Audit and Finance Commission and membership of the Planning and Development committee. Dennis serves on the Community Services Committee and the Education Committee, to name a few.

On city elections:
Running for office was “a challenge” for Dennis: “I’ve never done it before and I had opponents. I spent over $11,000, accepted campaign donations from a developer, something I wouldn’t do again. I hate asking for financial support. One has to be disciplined. It takes a lot of time to run and one needs to be well organized. Job and family are issues that need to be taken care off before one decides to run.”
Tom tends to agree with Dennis that citywide mailing is a valuable tool to improve name recognition, besides meeting residents door to door. “It is easier to run and win in a single-member district than
running citywide.” To a question from a student, Tom replied: “ I am as partial as anyone else to those who contribute. I will listen to a donor, but I still will not know if he’ll vote for me and if he may be asking for my assistance later on. There is a conflict of interest when taking a campaign dollar.”

On running for city council:
Dennis said he has always been active in leadership positions. “I started a bicycle gang in my neighborhood when I was 12. We were called the Easy Riders. Much later at work, I started a union. I
always wanted to run for office one day.” And so he was elected to the council in 2011.
Tom had no interest in running for office, but like many others, when he disagrees with important issues not taken care of by local government, “I voice my opinion and do something about it. When
government falls short, then I will act by running for office.” And running for office he has, years ago and more recently many times for the city council in Irving, elected in 2007 and 2012.

Workings of the council:
With no previous council experience, Dennis told the class: “For newcomers no time to learn at your own pace. There is a lingo to learn from day one, and week after week information to master. Colleagues have been helpful.” For one with previous council experience, Tom points to the manager’s “key role–the city manager does a great job by providing what the council needs to make
decisions.”

Residents communication:
Dennis was not fond of the press, social media, and those residents “failing to get all the information. They’re often misinformed in their criticism and don’t have the facts. But, to quote Bill
Cosby, the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
“We blew it. It was our fault,” commented Tom. “We have to do a better job,” regarding the October session when residents complained about the total lack of quality of life in their apartments. “We are
servants to our residents, we are here to serve. It certainly does not show in the design of the council chamber. The council sits behind the elevated horseshoe looking down at residents. It should be the
reverse!”

A last word:
To both, Dennis and Tom said, “Education pays,” coupled with discipline, work ethics and a goal in life. And running for office has been transformational: “We change. Interests do change.”

As pointed out in this morning’s print edition, the City Council could soon vote on an agreement with Manuel Benavidez‘s attorneys. The proposed agreement is based on a single-member election system that would see six council members elected from single-member districts with the remaining two council seats and the mayor being elected at large.

What the story doesn’t have is some details on how the proposed districts are drawn. If the current proposal was eventually approved by both sides and the judge, at least one new person living in a largely Hispanic area could join the council in May.Continue reading →

The City Council just voted 7-2 to charge water customers a $1.50 monthly fee to make up for a shortfall in the amount it costs to provide ambulance service and how much it takes in. For apartment complexes where individual units don’t have separate meters, there will be a $1.50 charge for each unit.

The council also voted to lower the amount charged for ambulance use. The fee for residents under 65 was lowered from $500 to $450. The amount for residents over 65 was lowered to $400. Budget director Bret Starr said this week that the city spends about $6 million on ambulance services, but only collects about 45 percent of the charges billed. That means payments account for about $2.5 million of service costs. With the new fee and lowered ambulance charge, Starr said the city should recoup about $3.7 million of its service costs. The move comes weeks ahead of a new Texas law that allows certain cities to charge for such services on water bills.

Four residents who spoke against the idea tonight said they consider it a tax. Two people voiced support for the measure. Fire Chief Mario Molina said the number of calls don’t impact the cost of service. He said the main factor is just having ambulance service available to all residents. He also noted that the people treated by the Irving Fire Department have the state’s highest cardiac arrest survival rate. He also said he thinks if the council is not proactive, funds would not be available down the line when new ambulances are needed.

Van Duyne and Tom Spink were the council members who voted against the $1.50 charge. The council unanimously passed the lowered costs for ambulance use.

It’s official: Irving City Council members Rick Stopfer and Joe Philipp won in landslide victories tonight. Combined with Lewis Patrick’s unopposed win, the council won’t be changing up at all this year. That makes the second year in a row that you Irvingites re-elected all incumbents. The last incumbent to lose was James Dickens back in 2007, who fell to Tom Spink.